1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for controlling a temperature of a cooked food chilling chamber (hereinafter, referred to as "cook chill chamber") for quickly refrigerating cooked food in a refrigerator.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Recently, a variety of electronic products tends to be multifunctional and to be multipurpose in order to fulfill various needs of consumers. Accordingly, in refrigerators, various products which are designed for the convenience and the multiple purposes of consumers, e.g., those refrigerators which have an improved refrigerating efficiency by increasing the number of coolers of a refrigerating compartment or those refrigerators which consumes less electric power, are widely used. Especially, various methods by which the freezing efficiency or the refrigerating efficiency of the refrigerator is maximized while the electric power is minimally consumed, have been presented.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,263,332 discloses the method for improving the refrigerating efficiency by promptly restoring after a closing of the refrigerator door the temperature in the refrigerating compartment which has risen by external air flowing into the refrigerating compartment during an opening of the refrigerator door. According to the method, both a point of time of a door opening and a point of time of a door closing are detected in order to calculate a time difference between a door opening and a door closing, i.e., a door open time, and the operations of a compressor and of a fan are controlled in order to provide cool air to the refrigerating compartment. Then, on the basis of the door open time, the inside temperature of the refrigerating compartment is reset to a temperature which is lower than an initially-set temperature. When the reset temperature is established, the driving of the compressor and the fan are controlled until the temperature inside the refrigerating compartment decreases to the reset temperature.
When cooked food is contained in the refrigerating compartment, an inside temperature of the refrigerating compartment rises. In such a cases, the heat of the cooked food quickens the spoiling of the food in the refrigerator and causes more electric consumption. However, it is inconvenient for a user to cool the cooked food outside of the refrigerating compartment or the freezing compartment in order to avoid the above situation. Furthermore, the above method is not a good method for maintaining the taste of the cooked food. According to food processing studies, when food which is newly cooked is quickly freezed and is kept in the refrigerating compartment, the taste of the food which is newly cooked is well maintained and the cooked food is kept in a fresh state for many hours. However, examples where the above principle of food processing studies is applied to refrigerators have not been yet disclosed.
Therefore, in the case of cooked food, it is essential to develop refrigerators which keep the taste of cooked food in fresh condition for a long time.